The Shining Path Case Study

There have been many terror groups throughout time. Each era has had its own who were known by everyone. Every country has been touched by terrorist, whether it was producing them or being terrorized by these extremist. Terrorism is nothing new and has been ongoing as far back as the Roman Empire. It has reached every corner of the world and has greatly impacted our society. The 80’s were filled with terror. Many terror groups arouse from this time of trouble. For Peru, there was one in particular that stands out, the communist party controlled terror group known as, “The Shining Path.”
The Shining Path, or Communist Party of Peru, is a terrorist organization that emerged in the 1970’s in Peru. The Peruvian revolutionary terror organization followed Maoism and utilized guerrilla warfare tactics and violent acts of terrorism. The leader of the group was Abimael Guzman, sometimes referred to as Comrade Gonzalo. The organizations mission was to implement a “New Democracy.” They wanted to create a world of pure communism. Doing so by dictatorship. The organization was in a sense a spinoff of the Communist Party of Peru or Red Flag. Red Flag broke off of the original Peruvian Communist Party which derived from the Peruvian Socialist Party founded in 1928 by Jose Carlos …show more content…
They were found above a dance studio in a district of Lima. The government had had the building under surveillance since a couple of Shining Path were seen going in and out. Not too long after the capture, many of the remaining group’s leadership also fell. Guzmans capture created a vaccum of leadership. Because Guzman had was the heart of the Shining Path, without him the group was nothing. Power was unable to be passed down because a second in command did not exist. During this time, the organization had just been defeated by self defense organizations. Defeats that greatly embarrassed